Claus D. Kuhn is Professor for RNA Biochemistry (Biochemistry VI) since July 1, 2021

Explaining his career and research activities, Prof. Dr. Claus D. Kuhn offers the following summary: “I first studied biochemistry at the University of Regensburg. After my pre-diploma, I moved to Sweden to complete my studies at Stockholm University with a Master of Science. Back in Germany, I did my PhD as a Kekulé fellow at the Gene Center of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich with Prof. Patrick Cramer on the structure of a protein complex that is important for human gene expression.

Following the completion of my PhD in 2008, I relocated to the US as a postdoctoral fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research. There, I continued my research on protein-RNA complexes at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research institute that is located in a suburb of New York City. After a brief foray into biotech industry, in 2013 my application to lead a junior research group of the Elite Network of Bavaria at the University of Bayreuth was successful. I then led this independent research group from the end of 2014 until the end of 2020.

In October 2020, I was accepted into the Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG), which involved my appointment as Professor for RNA Biochemistry at the University of Bayreuth as of July 1, 2021. Research in my group aims to understand the influence of non-coding RNAs in biomedically relevant areas such as organ regeneration and neuronal activity.

The combination of biochemical functional studies and data-intensive approaches will allow us to both lay important groundwork for curing cancer and neurological diseases, and train the interdisciplinary scientists of the future that are able to seamlessly combine (bio)informatics and biochemical approaches. The combination of these two ways of thinking is not only relevant in basic research, but will shape the medicine of the future, a significant part of which will involve RNA.

In addition to our research goals, it is very important to me over the next few years to increasingly communicate the results of our science (and science in general) to the breadth of society. The coronavirus pandemic and climate change in particular show where science-denial and scientific ignorance will lead us. I hope to be able to make my contribution to resolutely counteracting these dangerous social currents over the coming years - both in close cooperation with my colleagues worldwide and at the University of Bayreuth.”